JONATHAN BAUMBACH
127
often noted in discussions of that work.
In
COl1lrast to the romance of
the gangster plot, th e relationship between Michel and Patricia is
precisely and realistically observed. Godard takes characters, or proto–
types of characters, from Grade B movies and presents them to us with
the attention to detail of a realistic novelist. The love story between
Michel and Patricia, both self-involved to the point of alienation, is so
exactingl y perceived that it becomes moving and true within the ironic
distance of the film's mode.
In
almost all of his films-some , of course,
more stylized than others-Godard mixes metaphoric action ann
rea listic behavior, crea ting a world that accommodates both without
obvious disparity. The tension in
Breathless
comes out of the at–
temptcd synthesis of opposites: cool and hot, il1lellection and action,
documentary and fiction, truth and beauty. There are a number of
flaw ed masterpieces in Godard's prodigious
career-Weekend, Two or
Three Things
I
Know About Her, Pierrot Ie Fou, Band of Outsiders,
Alphaville, Masculine Feminine, A Married Woman, My Life to
Live-but Breathless
is his most original and fortuitous achievement, a
film in which it seems as if every miscalculated risk transforms itself
into gesture of grace.
